Another Second
by Sunset Miko
Summary: Inuyasha had three long years to think about things. Written for First Tweak's Three Years Later Challenge.


I do not own Inuyasha and Company, no matter how happy it would make me. Rumiko Takahashi does.

This was written for FirstTweak's (community./firsttweak/) Three Years Later Special Challenge

Three years was a long time…

36 months that lasted forever

156 grueling weeks  
1095 days that never seemed to end

26,280 torturous hours  
1,576,800 minutes that ticked by so slowly

94,608,000 lonely seconds

…and he felt every single one of them.

Three years was a long time to wait, but he would have waited longer. He would have waited five hundred years if he had to just to see her again. So many things had been left unsaid; so many things he should have done when he had the chance, so many wasted moments that he'd taken for granted… he needed one last chance.

He needed a chance to tell her all the things that had been floating around in his head since she'd left. He needed her to listen when he told her the truth, all the things he'd been afraid to tell her before. He needed to tell her just how much she meant to him, how she was his everything, how the world was empty and gray without her. He wanted her with him so there would be no more grueling weeks, torturous hours, and lonely seconds. He needed her in his arms forever.

He needed to do the things he'd been aching to do since they'd first met. He needed to run his clawed fingers through her midnight hair. He needed to ever so gently touch her cheek, needed to run his thumb over her pouty bottom lip, needed to pull her close, needed to finally kiss her like he'd dreamt of doing every single night since she gave him back his life and brought the world around him into color for the first time.

He needed to make up for the times he'd ignored her or left her side to be elsewhere. If he had known that his time with her was limited, that there would be a day where she would no longer be there to sit beside, then he would have done things differently. He would have held her in his lap as they sat by the campfire instead of hiding in the branches above her looking down. He would have kept his arms wrapped around her every moment possible, holding her as she slept, carrying her when she was tired, keeping her safe and warm while reveling in her scent and touch… So much time, so many wasted moments that he would never get back.

So he waited. He waited and hoped that some day she would return to him, that she would miss him as much as he missed her, that she would come back to stay with him forever. He waited as the seconds turned to minutes and the minutes turned to hours while he sat staring at the well. Hours turned to days and days turned to weeks, but he couldn't bring himself to leave, just in case she came back. Weeks turned to months and his friends tried to drag him away, tried to convince him that she was gone, that she wouldn't want him to wait for her, that she would want him to live, not just exist. Still he couldn't go. He couldn't give up the hope that she would come back to him. If he lost that hope then he would truly have nothing once again, and so the months turned to years as he waited.

Three years passed around him before it finally happened. He felt the familiar rush of magic, saw the flash of blue light that had always signaled her arrival, and then he could feel her, smell her sweet scent, and hear her soothing voice. In seconds he was at the bottom of the well with her wrapped tightly in his arms and he smiled again for the first time in three years. She came back to him. He'd hoped and prayed and dreamed and waited and she came back to him.

-

Kagome laughed softly and wrapped her arms around her hanyou. "Did you miss me?"

"Gods yes, woman. Don't ever leave me again… **please**." His voice was desperate and full of all the pain he'd suffered in her absence and she allowed her hands to bury themselves in his mess of silver hair, pulling his head back so she could see his face.

"I won't ever leave you again. Life without you… it wasn't the life for me. I need to be with you Inuyasha. I can't live without you."

"Good, wench, cuz I can't live without you. Kagome, there's something I've wanted to tell you forever."

Kagome looked deep into his eyes and waited. She waited for him say what she'd been waiting for years to hear. She waited and hoped and prayed that he would finally say what she needed to hear.

His hands traveled slowly up her back to slip into her hair. He ever so gently cupped her cheek, his thumb caressing her soft smile, and he met her gaze, letting her see the truth in his eyes. "I love you, Kagome," he whispered before leaning in and pressing his lips to hers. It was everything he'd ever imagined it would be and more and when they pulled apart for breath he smiled again. "That was worth waiting for."

Kagome smiled back at him and tugged him down to kiss him again. "No more waiting."

"No more waiting," he repeated, his voice filled with relief as well as promise of what was to come. "I don't think I could wait another second."


End file.
